Heritage Oaks Hospital has opened an outpatient and day treatment center in Roseville to meet growing demand for mental health services in the Sacramento region.

The private, for-profit psychiatric hospital already operates outpatient centers on Fulton Avenue and on its hospital campus on Auburn Boulevard in Sacramento, but saw additional need in south Placer County.

Located at 1899 East Roseville Parkway, the new center provides outpatient services to adults with psychiatric disorders who can benefit from day treatment or less intensive care — and may help some avoid hospitalization altogether in a market with a severe shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds.

Squeezed by state and budget cuts, Sacramento County closed its crisis stabilization unit and eliminated 50 of 100 beds at its Mental Health Treatment Center on Stockton Boulevard last year. The cuts have sent hundreds of psychiatric patients in crisis to local emergency rooms for care.

The new center joins a network that includes outpatient centers at Sutter Center for Psychiatry on Folsom Boulevard and Heritage Oaks’ sister facility in south Sacramento, Sierra Vista Hospital on Bruceville Road.

The goal of the new program is to help patients improve their mental health, regain quality of life and transition back into daily activities in their homes and communities.

“It’s a great resource for the community,” said Scott Seamons, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California in Sacramento. “It will help patients not currently served and could prevent escalation.”

‘Nothing else like it’ in south Placer

The new center will offer three treatment plans.

One is partial hospitalization, also known as day treatment.

This program is intended for patients at risk of hospitalization or on the way out of inpatient care, said Chris Diamond, chief executive officer at Heritage Oaks. It offers intensive day treatment with an opportunity for patients to go home at night and practice the skills they learn.

An intensive outpatient program is structured in a group setting but runs fewer hours in a day so patients can schedule appointments within the community. The focus is on successful transition back to everyday life.

The Roseville center also offers outpatient services two hours a day for patients with Medicare funding. This also is a step-down from the “partial hospitalization” and more intensive outpatient care.

The new program is licensed to serve 25 patients but is expected to accommodate 35 in the future. Eleven patients were enrolled as of this week.

Cognitive therapy — learning new shills to cope with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression or bipolar disorder — is the focus, said Dana Van Aelstyn, a licensed clinical social worker at the Roseville center.

“There’s nothing else like it in this area,” she said.

Located in about 2,800-square feet of leased space in a small office complex, the center opened Oct. 25 and will bring new jobs to the community.

Heritage Oaks is adding the equivalent of seven additional full time staff to work in Roseville, including a regular attending physician, program director, program manager, nurse, technicians and others.

Provides an alternative

Kaiser Permanente contracts with Heritage Oaks for care at the new center; Kaiser offers some outpatient mental health treatment, but not the more intensive partial hospitalization program.

“If someone is destabilizing, rather than put them in a hospital, we can put them in intensive, all-day, partial hospitalization — but they can sleep in their own bed at night,” said Dr. Steve Melcher, regional chief of inpatient psychiatry for Kaiser.

“We are in a crisis for psychiatric beds and this provides alternatives.”

Both Melcher and Seamons participated in a coalition of stakeholders formed this year to study a redesign of Sacramento County’s mental health care system for adults. The recommendations call for a continuum of care, from a new crisis stabilization unit and a 24-hour respite center to supported housing and employment.

“Any piece of this puzzle we can rightfully fit together is a good thing,” Seamons said. “Their plans for the future really seem to be very complementary to the stakeholders group.”

Heritage Oaks and Sierra Vista are for-profit hospitals owned until Monday by Tennessee-based Psychiatric Solutions Inc. The company was acquired by Universal Health Services Inc. in King of Prussia, Pa.

The two local hospitals serve patients who pay their own way, have health insurance or are covered by Medicare, the government program for seniors.

They treat low-income and indigent patients when there’s room and patients have no place else to go, but that’s not the focus of the company.

“In most cases, they serve a different population,” said Dorian Kittrell, executive director of the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center.

“But when either side finds a way to expand services and service the community, it’s very beneficial.”